1600
by MachinimistLuke
Summary: A Prize to Win with much to lose.


CHAPTER ONE: PART ONE

**LOCAL TIME - 0412 HOURS - 372 MINUTES PRIOR TO EVENT**

_Joel Platen._ That was his name.  
Rupert looked down to the piece of paper he held.  
WANTED - $20,000 'Dead or Alive, eh? What did this guy do...? Eh... Who am I kidding...'  
He sets the paper on his desk as he sits down, grabbing a large phone book from the top of his cabinet.  
'Let me see...'  
Rupert scrolls his hand up and down the pages, as it turned into it's bony form.  
It stopped midway through page 252.  
_'There... Found you...'_

Rupert grabbed the phone and cycled through the numbers until he got the number listed.  
The call was answered.  
'I'm looking for some... _assistance..._' claimed Rupert as a malicious smirk crawled up his face.  
_'...Name your Price.'_

* * *

**LOCAL TIME - 0630 HOURS - 234 MINUTES PRIOR TO EVENT**

Joel frowned when he checked his watch whilst he held a spoon in his mouth, eating his breakfast as he tried to get his jacket on.

'Damn it! I'm late for my run! Julie's gonna be pissed off with me by the time I get to work!'  
Joel grabs his bag, dashes for the door, grabs his bike and cycles off down the street with his toast in his mouth.  
'I'm off!' Joel mumbled as his mom waved to him 'Bye Sweetie! Have a nice day!'.  
Joel sweat-dropped as he pressed onwards along the street.

As he cycled, a mysterious man who was rapidly running through alleyways had kept up to match Joel's speed, making sure that he wasn't being noticed.

* * *

**LOCAL TIME - 0643 HOURS - 221 MINUTES PRIOR TO EVENT**

Joel ran out breath by the time he reached the office to collect his papers.

"I thought I told you to set your alarm off for six!" Julie scolded.  
"I did! I-It's just that I forgot to put batteries in the other day and I-"  
"Quit it with your excuses Joel and just go do your round." Julie said as she began to look up dreamily.  
"What's up with you today? It's not like you to be like this." Joel said as he noticed how she had turned into her rare bubbly mood.  
"We got ourselves a visitor here who's looking for work, and he's such a hunk!"  
"Oh Brother..." Joel replied with the applicable everyday facepalm.  
"What, jealous?"  
"I have a date tonight you know?"  
"That's a first."  
"Shut up, at least she's over a bazillion times nicer than you."  
"Get lost, asshole." Julie walked off with both arms crossed, making her way back to her desk.  
"Sure, I'll just go meet the new guy then. Who knows! Maybe I'll get to tell him a few company secrets once he gets started! ...Maybe even the one about how you used a di-" Julie rapidly paced up to Joel and covered his mouth with her hand.  
"Shut up! You will never, NEEEVER disclose that piece of confidential information like that in front of anybody!" she whispered loudly with a serious look on her face.  
Joel's smirk pressed on to become a full blown fit of laughter, but then Julie smacked him round the face with her fist, rubbing it gently as she thought to herself with her eyes closed, wearing her pouting face.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.  
Joel looked up at her, as flickers crossed his vision, like a distorted television; a tear in between realities, revealing to him the world in anime. He had to blink twice when he saw the brief figure which stood before him, and it looked smoking hot too, even for a cartoon character.

Julie may have been seen as boring to him in his lifetime, but now, this was a whole different story.

A burning pain seethed into his head and as he regained his senses, reality came back into being.

Julie turned to look at Joel with a very worried look.  
"Joel? Are you OK?" she said as she helped him up.  
"I'm fine..."  
"You sure don't look it! You look like you just saw a ghost! Did my fist frighten you THAT much?" She began getting into a fit of laughter herself.

* * *

**LOCAL TIME - 0410 HOURS - 374 MINUTES PRIOR TO EVENT**

_Jonathan Kelk._

His brother was being kept hostage and he needed to get $10,000 before sunset or else they would bury him alive along with another hostage they had taken.

He was not gonna let that happen.

Running away was something he just didn't do, but he found himself in a position where he had no choice.  
He ran home and opened his bedroom door as Thunderstorms brewed during the dark hours with the Sun hiding fearfully behind the horizon.

'NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!' he yelled as he hit the pillow at the head of his bed, throwing it across the room.  
He panted for breath and quietly calmed himself down and began to think of plans on how he was going to get the money.  
He could rob a bank, he could hold the mayor for ransom, but this kind of crazy thinking was not his style, no matter how bad or desperate the situation seemed, he still had morals.

Then suddenly, the phone rang...

* * *

**LOCAL TIME - 0650 HOURS - 214 MINUTES PRIOR TO EVENT**

'John, I'd like you to meet one of the employees here, this is Joel and he'll be covering Friday shifts whilst you'll be sticking to Wednesday Mornings, got that?' The manager introduced with his rough voice supporting his bearded face, as he dragged the two of them to the coffee room.

"Now you two can talk in here, I want you to get to know each other in the next ten minutes and I'll send in the others every now and then to trade places with Joey here."  
"The name's Joel, sir."  
"Ah whatever... anyway, I'm grabbing a coffee and getting back to my paperwork. Ha-ha, get it? Paperwork? ..." The manager just walked off grumbling about how 'kids these days not as cheerful as they used to be' to his jokes and then considered that perhaps he was just getting too old.

A few moments of silenced passed between the two as the manager made his way out of the area with his coffee.

"I'm sorry about this..."  
"Huh? UGH!"  
Jonathan had punched Joel in the ribs, causing him to collapse on the floor.

* * *

**LOCAL TIME - 0743 HOURS - 161 MINUTES PRIOR TO EVENT**

Along the deserted highway, a Silver Sedan drove along at roughly 35 Miles per Hour.  
Inside the car, Rupert sat at the driver's seat, with Jonathan sat to his right and a stirring Joel tied down onto the back seats.  
John, arms crossed, pondered when he was going to get his cash, still wary about whether he could trust this guy or not.

"Glad we didn't have to do much to get hold of him."  
"It was I who got him, not you. Anyway, I still want half of the deal, OK? I don't wanna get ripped off."  
"What ever makes you say that? I was the one who called you with the offer. We still need to get to warehouse and it's quite a whiles away yet."

John just moaned to himself, growing nervous as time was passing on.  
A minute later, Joel had woken himself up from the terrible state he was in, and realised he was moving along a bumpy road.  
He glanced up to see the front of the car with John and a man sitting there looking focused and rather tense.  
He quickly withdrew his glance, closing his eyes, to avoid getting any attention.  
Slowly, he tried to move his wrists from side to side, only to realise they were firmly tightened into a knot and so were his legs.  
He gave himself a moment to think of his Mom, Julie, his boss and the date he had to take out for tonight.

...The Date!

He was NOT going to let his plans get sidetracked by anyone else. Not now.  
He never did let anything distract him and he never will, except for that one time where he caught Julie in the Janitor's closet with a- There was no time for this. He had to get his head straight; as focused as that of the other two in the car.  
Joel's mind suddenly started to play up on him as flashes of terrifying memories passed across his mind as he shut his eyes tight... he could still hear the screams of men as were torn limb from limb.

_Eyes wide open, pupils shrink,_  
_Lips still dry - need a drink._  
_Thirst for death, ever-growing,_  
_Psychopath - without knowing._

_Passenger, head does turn,_  
_Look of horror - he will burn._  
_Murderer loves smells so sweet,_  
_You and I, now we meet._

From the back of the car, reality itself was once again tearing away into another dimension.  
Joel ripped off the bonds that kept him held down with such incredible ease as his right arm began to dissolve into a metal frame which expanded into a large drill. Reality turned into animation yet again.

Rupert quickly kicked the brakes hard and jumped out of the car with Jonathan doing the same, having it crash into a telephone poll along the desert highway.  
The sedan burst into flames moments later as the fuel leaked out, spreading the flames.

All of a sudden, the back of the Sedan flew right off at such a high velocity, it travelled nearly 180 meters before it landed on the sand with a crash. From the sedan, Joel climbed out with murderous intent steadily focused on his mind.  
With blood dripping from the side of his face, he stared hard into John's eyes.

The drill that took up his arm was pulled back and replaced with a blade arm, which he drew along the sand with as he walked closer and closer.

Rupert became fearful but decided to stand his ground and to not let his cowardice be shown, but his face was plain as day to read; he wanted out. Now.

John raised his arm up into air and called out 'Lightning!', as clouds appeared from nowhere, swirling around in sky, brewing up a storm. Joel was still on his approach. John's Luck was striking as a bolt from the clouds hit him dead on, charging his powers up to full.

He yelled as he pushed his right hand forward, blasting a powerful stream of electricity directly towards Joel.  
All Joel did was raise his blade arm to his face as it absorbed the blow.  
He licked it upwards sickeningly and refocused his malicious smirk towards John own - _he liked a good challenge._  
What came next to him though was unexpected.  
Joel drove his electrified blade arm directly into the ground below him, as the Earth started cracking as beam of light radiated through them, blinding John's vision, as the ground started to rise up faster towards him, hitting him dead on into his side, causing him to fly off a short distance, hitting the ground hard.

* * *

**LOCAL TIME - 0750 HOURS - 154 MINUTES PRIOR TO EVENT**

Several black Volkswagen Passats were making there way fast along the desert highway, approaching the scene ahead.  
'We've got a lock on them, boss...' said one of the Drivers over the radio.  
Suddenly they had passed the invisible barrier that had been made as the tear in between realities.  
Caught in shock, the drivers made an emergency brake, blocking off the whole road Seventeen men had found themselves exit their cars and take a look around in one quick view, as some of them pursued the scene up ahead on foot.

_'This is not going to be clean'_, states an elderly man as he stood at the front of his car, loading his gun, walking behind the rest.

At the same time, John had been tired out by Joel's relentless assaults without him landing a hit. He had bruises and cuts all over him, but he wasn't gonna die now. He was gonna make an all or nothing move.

With his arms pushed behind him, he forced a huge amount of electrical energy out behind him, giving him an extreme boost in speed as he made his way towards Joel.  
Joel, taken aback by his speed could not respond in time, and as if time had slowed down to a near-dramatic stop, John passed him by his left side, with Joel gritting his teeth as his eyes widened with shock, even with his murderous expression still worn.  
He turned his head to see where John was going with his attack, only to gasp with his mouth wide open as John performed and back chop to the back of his neck, placing him into a paralytic state on the floor of earth beneath him.

Joel screamed the screams of many before his body just collapsed and returned to normal.  
The world surrounding them collapsed back into reality, with Rupert watching the scene from a distance in fear.

Gun.


End file.
